Posts filed under 'Movies'
There were a few reasons for watching this movie. Actors that I have revered all my life including Konkona Sen, Irrfan Khan, KayKay and Shiney Ahuja have played a part in this flick. Anurag Basu has helmed the role of a director, whose
Gangster (2006) was critically acclaimed and loved by the masses. The music by Pritam and the songs (lyricists Sayeed Quadri, Amitabh Varma, and Sandeep Shrivastava) are so contemporary and funky, I listened to it almost everyday in Europe, visualizing the tale against the urban backdrop of Mumbai. The question I begged to ask now was - when is
Life in a…Metro releasing?
I have no clue when and why the name change happened but Metro (as I love to call it) is a hard hitting drama of 7 roles, set in the city of metropolitan Mumbai. Each one has a life which is more depressing then the other but connected in some way. Rahul (Sharman Joshi) is a call-centre employee in love with his colleague Neha (Kangana Ranaut). He’s hard-working and ambitious and has fixed goals to achieve in life for which he’s willing to sacrifice his principles. So while he slogs in the night taking calls from the US, his apartment is being used by his office seniors to get laid with the female associates. On the other hand, Neha’s flirtation with her boss Ranjeet (KayKay) is not known to many in the office, but unknowingly Rahul has to hand over the keys of his apartment to his boss to help him get a promotion as a Junior Manager. By the way, Rahul loves Neha the most.
Completely sidetracked and ignored by her husband Ranjeet and immersed in her duties for the family, Shikha (Shilpa Shetty) is searching for love to fill the vast vacuum left in her life. She spends her time visiting her old Bharatnatyam teacher Mrs. Shivani (Nafisa Ali Sodhi). On a rainy day therefore, she meets Akash (Shiney Ahuja) at a bus stop. The stranger in her life is a theater actor who she falls in love slowly. Meanwhile, Mrs. Shivani has a torrid past as well. An old lover called Amol (Dharmendra) left her for good to make a career for himself and is coming back to India to meet her sweetheart for one last time. This is the happiest moment, a gray-haired woman dumped in a old peoples home could experience.
28 year old Shruti (Konkona Sen Sharma) has a problem with no easy solution. Like every parent of an Indian girl child, Shruti’s have been pestering her to get married soon. The search for a valid partner, leads her to 38 year old “virgin” Debu a.k.a. Monty (Irrfan Khan) through a wedding website called Shaadi.com. The meeting disappointingly winds up quickly because Monty has a disgusting way of looking at a female’s anatomy. And Shruti is Shikha’s sister.
Each character has been beautifully crafted in the script written by Anurag Basu himself. Basu presents the dark truths of urban lifestyle in its most concrete form ever. Seemingly I would observe, he’s encroached upon Madhur Bhandarkar’s (Chandni Bar, Corporate, Page 3, Traffic Signal)territory which deals with similar hardcore concepts in all his films but Metro has more entertainment value in terms of the star cast, the ambiance it provides and obviously the composition and lyrics. Shilpa Shetty’s performance, as the neglected house wife compromising for her family’s sake is path breaking. This comes after her a forgotteble role in a dud called Shaadi Karke Phas Gaye Yaar with Govinda. KayKay as the uncompromising husband has a unique style of emoting through his eyes which is a special treat to watch. But one must give a standing ovation to Irrfan Khan’s talent in Metro. His comic capers are interspersed with the harsh realities of life, that provide ludicrous moments to the grave and sensitive narrative. Sharman as the young guy and Kangana, portray their crestfallen images quite convincingly. Both have been shown to become slaves of their own aspirations and inner desires and their bitter past which eventually leads them to concede their morals to find success in life. Hereafter they must find true love on their own or risk getting lost in time forever, like Amol says in the movie - if only he had listened to his heart and not his mind when the hour of reckoning had come.
Metro leaves you with some haunting melodies from Pritam. He had earlier composed music for Anurag’s Gangster (Bheegi Bheegi, Ya Ali, Tu Hi Meri Shab) . The noteworthy factor about this album are not just the songs, but the effort in bringing in a few singers to sing the same versions in their own styles. Baatein Kuch Ankaheen Si (Adnan Sami & Suhail), Alvida (KK and James) and O Meri Jaan (KK and Suhail). In going with the commercial demands of the markets, a few remix versions have also been included in this album. My favorites are In Dino sung by new found talent Soham reminds us of a lover who has found his love at last and is motivating her to live life lovingly. The song Rishtey by James talks about the tribulations of a relationship and the final moments nearing its end. A music video on this song was being currently aired on TV. Alvida is the final goodbye to a wonderful alliance of love, which is sung by James with such immense gusto. Suhail sings ‘O Meri Jaan’ which describes the moment a person loses his heart to someone. A truly madly lovable song in the movie and Suhail is a promising voice to look forward in the future. There is another version of the same song sung by KK but does not appear in the movie. A band comprising Pritam, James and Suhail was formed especially for this movie called the Metro Band and using them in filming all the six tracks in the movie.
Its this precise filming of the songs with the band members, where I thought the director completely lost his magical creativity which I was so proud of. In the backdrop of the narrative, singers Pritam, James and Suhail (the Metro Band), dressed in black, strum guitar in the movie, with the characters enacting the story nonchalantly. James with his pierced eye-brows, loose hair and wicked expressions, looks uncomfortable like his other colleagues (Pritam can’t help smiling non-stop). An occasional appearance is not objectionable, but the trio keep popping every place in the movie which makes the situation completely hysterical and takes away the charm of the running story. But the director Anurag Basu has explained the old theater concept of using a sutradhar and using the Metro band for this - “Similar to Bhavari and Banwani form of drama where singers are used as sutradhaar’s to narrate the story and take it further, I have moulded the concept to contemporary scenario and fitted into my screenplay,” he explains (Read More) . Towards the end of the movie, the Metro Band sings ‘Kar Salaam’, one of my other favorite songs and an appearance I thought just made sense only at that point of time. Don’t let the Metro Band discourage you from going to the theater though. Metro is rocking.
May 13th, 2007
He’s back and in a BIG way. The visual effects are awesome, the story (though melodramatic in parts) is captivating and most importantly, more villains join hands to finish off our friendly neighborhood superhero than before — there’s Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), the New Goblin (James Franco) and Venom (Topher Grace). Additionally there’s also a slimy-sticky-creepy-black-substance that I must name as the most damnable character in the story as well. This is director Sam Raimi’s third Spidey installment and we all must hope to see the fourth one from him soon.
The movie begins on a romantic note, with Peter Parker (Tobey McGuire) enjoying the sweet voice of his girlfriend M.J (Mary Jane played by Kirsten Dunst) in an Opera theater. Harry Osborn’s also there, Peter’s best friend and the soon-to-be-wicked son of the late Dr. Norman Osborn (The Green Goblin played by Willem Dafoe in Spiderman) who died a brutal death. Harry misjudges it to be the handiwork of Spiderman and is looking to avenge his father’s gruesome death. The ensuing fight sequence between the New Goblin and Peter Parker takes place high up in the by lanes of New York city. Blow-by-blow, it’s fun to watch the new inventions of the heroes/villains while spidey makes it up with his acrobatic skills and of course his web-slinging. Concurrently, the New Goblin comes crashing down of his high morale and gets severely injured resulting in a loss of his short-term memory. This means he forgets for the time being that he was out to kill his best friend.
Meanwhile another storm is brewing in the tea cup with Flint Marco, an escaped convict wearing the typical striped t-shirt which is reminiscent of all comic book persona. Meanwhile, we recollect Marco as the co-accused in the murder of Peter Parker’s uncle Ben. While running away from the police, he accidentally falls into a pit of an experimental physics lab and the molecules of the sandy test bed bind into him entirely, transforming Marco into the innovative Sandman thus acquiring the capability of changing his shape and size, blowing a lethal dust storm, escaping with the speed of wind amongst other things.
In his love story, Peter faces some tough choices with his partner M.J. which forces him to move away from her love and attention. Ironically the Spiderman saga always revolves around his girlfriend. During this time enters a slimy black symbiotic substance which binds itself with the Spidey suit while he’s taking a nap, making it dark and evil — compelling Spiderman to act like a villain himself. His actions are deplored all around the city with people viewing him with disgust and bewilderment. This is Spiderman’s most challenging occasion - he must get his love back, clear his tarnished image in the minds of the community and fight the evils of the society, all single handedly.
Tobey McGuire is magnificent playing the title role for the third time and especially his metamorphosis into a vicious superhero. However, one feels there are some inane moments begging us to ask if we’re watching a Hindi cinema or a slick Hollywood action flick. Spiderman 3 has some emotional moments mixed with action. Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane (aka M.J.) plays her part of a disturbed lady quite wonderfully. Despite the movie series being always known for its digital effects, Spiderman 3 has some path breaking sequences from amongst the lot. Most notable is Marko transforming into Sandman in the testing pit, rising from the brown dune, inch by inch and secondly the blowing dust storm which he emanates after escaping a crime scene every time. All credit must go to Sony Pictures Imageworks and overall Visual Effects Supervisor, Scott Stokdyk and his team. This movie is made for the big screen (unlike a few others) so make sure you don’t miss it.
Lastly, I recognized this gentleman on the screen without much trouble and was quick to point that out to my friend. So while you’re munching that pop-corn and sipping the cola, pay attention to this man who meets Peter Parker at Times Square, reading a news bulletin and saying “You know, I guess one person can make a difference”. Guess who he is? He’s the creator of Spiderman himself — Stan Lee.
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May 12th, 2007
An incident with Ashoke Ganguli (Irrfan Khan) changes him for good and takes his journey, half-way across the globe and which spans a generation from Kolkata to New York and characterize a cultural drift between the two.
Mira Nair [Salaam Bombay (1988), Monsoon Wedding (2001)] directs The Namesake which is derivation of Jhumpa Lahiri’s book of the same title. It got critical attention then especially since it was coming after Lahiri’s Pulitzer award winning and much acclaimed book The Interpreter of Maladies.
In the 70’s Calcutta, Ashoke Ganguli meets Ashima (Tabu) her wife to be–a cultured bengali woman with an interest in fine arts–at her residence where she’s much enamored by his shoes of a distinct US brand. Ashoke, at this point is doing his doctorate degree in fibre optics in a New York city university. The hot humid weather of Calcutta makes way to the cold white landscape of New York. Ashima now married and settled in the daily grind of the western world with some difficulty, gives birth to a baby boy. Due to some strange circumstances, he’s named ‘Gogol’ after Nikolai Gogol, the famous writer who is Ashoke’s favorite and whose writing has had a profound effect on his own life. But as Gogol (Karl Penn) grows into a teenager, amongst the new generation americans , his name becomes an object of embarrassment for him. Thus begins a confrontation of cultural values and peer differences which threatens to drift the family away from each other.
The representation of Ashima from a youthful girl to an old erudite mother speaks volumes about Tabu’s immense talent to touch the heart and soul of any role. Ditto for Irrfan Khan who’s ‘bengalisque’ english interspersed with humour charms the audience completely and his famous walk with a limp from a previous incident in the movie cannot be missed till the end. The central character of Gogol, around which the theme revolves is also beautifully depicted by Karl Penn who’s mellow in his approach towards the role. In my opinion, The Namesake’s absolute triumph lies in it’s characterization of the actors for the story. Once that was accomplished, it was half the battle won for Mira Nair.
I haven’t read the book to make a comparison between the written word and the cinematic experience and that has helped me in enjoying the movie freely. The cinematography, the portrayal of the 70s India era and the assimilation of english and bengali dialogues all adds to the aura. A must-see movie for movie lovers.
March 25th, 2007
It begins in the small Gujarat village of Idar in the 1950s. A young lad called Gurukant Desai (fondly known as Guru) faces the ire of his headmaster father for dreaming big. Yet he succeeds somehow in convincing his father for traveling abroad to Istanbul, where he works in an oil company. The praise and the promotion for his hard work prompts him to return home and invest in his own ‘bijness’ of textile. Upon reaching the dream city of Mumbai with his wife Sujata (Aishwarya Rai) and brother-in-law ‘Jignes’ (Aryan Babbar), he realizes that the textile market has been monopolized by individuals and takes up the fight to free the same from their clutches with the help of a Gandhian philosopher called Nanaji (Mithun Chakraborty) who runs a newspaper called ‘The Independent’. Guru’s labour of love starts bearing fruit and his textile trade expands by leaps and bounds; he decides to build a manufacturing unit of polyester yarn in his home town of Idar. His oratory skills coupled with his intelligence leaves the crowd spellbound at a shareholders meet where he assures them that Shakti Corporation is a big family itself. However the trail of his accomplishment gets smudgy and he takes the ultimate test of his character to clear his name in front of an inquiry commission in a case of misappropriation of funds and custom duties.
The film clearly rests upon the acting brilliance of Abhishek Bachchan. Three cheers to the man who we can proudly say has now matured as an actor from the days when he was written off as just another star son (remember him in Shararat, Dhai Akshar Prem Ke, Bas Itna Sa Khwab Hai?). With Guru, Abhishek has taken his acting to the next level. Especially noteworthy are the sequences of the old Gurukant paralyzed from the right side with his detractors are baying down his neck or the speech which he gives in the heavy rain in front of an angry crowd (the Bombay High court is clearly visible in the background - it’s Cross Maidan).
After successive partnerships in films like Roja (1992), Thiruda Thiruda (1993), Bombay (1995), Iruvar (1997), Dil Se..(1998), Alai Payuthey (2000), Yuva (2004), etc. the Ratnam-Rahman duo have done it once again with Guru. Songs like Barso Re (Shreya Ghoshal) and Mayya Mayya (Mayyam Toller was especially roped in for this song) have been mixed with some Gujarati folk music making them irresistible while others like Aye Hairathe (Hariharan and Alka Yagnik) and Tere Bina (A R Rahman, Chinmayee & Murtaza Qadir) are more sufi based songs. The picturization and the choreography sets each song apart from the rest. Also blessed is the art direction where an entire street of the 50’s Mumbai complete with trams has been recreated for the movie. In my opinion, Guru is clearly Mani Ratnam’s best attempt at making cinema till now.
The Dhirubhai Ambani Connection
The media was speculative about Ratnam portraying Dhirubhai Hirachand Ambani’s (founder of Reliance Industries Limited) story cinematically. Dhirubhai like Gurukant Desai in the movie, also made it big in the corporate world from a modest beginning just by his sheer courage and intelligence. There are a couple of parallel instances which makes one wonder if the movie is indeed inspired by the business tycoon’s own story - Guru’s father being a teacher in a small village in Gujarat (Dhirubhai’s father himself was a teacher in Chorwad in Gujarat), the protagonist going abroad to work with an oil distributor (Dhirubhai worked in Aden, Yemen at a distributor of Shell Oil; in the movie you can see the young Guru sitting on cans of Shell Oil at the back of a truck), Guru setting up the textile business first and then moving into petrochemicals (Dhirubhai started the brand Vimal, a polyester yarn manufacturing company and then diversified into petrochemicals), the shareholder’s meeting in a pandal and the the one in Cross Maidan as mentioned earlier (Reliance Indistries has the rare distinction of being the only company to hold annual general meetings in stadiums. In 1986 it was held at Cross Maidan which was attended by 30,000 people), the paralysis attack on the right side (Dhirubhai had a brain stroke in 1986 which left his right arm paralyzed). Also similar to the movie, the Reserve Bank of India had indeed inquired into the NRI investments and their subsequent routing into Reliance Industries through lesser known companies registered abroad. They found nothing unethical or illegal. You can read more in this article here.
Technorati Tags: Abhishek Bachchan, Mani Ratnam, Guru, Dhirubhai Ambani
January 14th, 2007
To get me refreshed for the next year, I decided to take a complete break from my mundane lifestyle. It was a going to be a long weekend for me so I decided to pick 7 DVDs from various genres ranging from fantasy to realism to horror. Some of them could hardly make it to my favorites list but this one did. It’s called
Transamerica (released in 2005) which was released in 2005 starring Felicity Huffman in the lead role. Before I go any further, I must applaud Felicity’s performance and rate it as one of the best I have seen in American cinema. She deserved something more precious than just an
OSCAR for the same.
Sabrina “Bree” Osbourne is a transsexual woman living in Los Angeles and making a living out of telemarketing. One day she receives a call from a 17 year old called Toby Wilkins (Kevin Zegers) who’s interested to know the whereabouts of his father Stanley Schupak (Bree’s former name). Bree is caught unaware by this shocking news and decides to ignore it completely. But under pressure from her therapist who refuses to sign the papers necessary for a vaginoplasty surgery, Bree decides to face her past life and sets off to New York to find Toby. Posing as a catholic missionary (from the “church of the potential father”), she realizes her son has become a male hustler and sells drugs on the streets of the metropolis to make a living. Bree bails him out of the jail and decides to take him to his step father who would take care of him while she would be free to undergo her surgery back in LA; most critical for her existence in this world. Things don’t go as planned and they head back to LA by road, a journey that would unravel the challenging past and chart a new course in their lives for the future.
It’s time to get sensitized and change our world view towards gender bias and prejudice. The movie gives us an insight into the mind of a parent who despite lacking an identity and the respect in the society herself, feels strongly for the same about her son and wants him to get his place in the real world without further disappointments. Dolly Parton sings ‘Travelin’ Thru’, a wonderful song which she performed LIVE at the 78th Annual Academy Awards ceremony and was nominated for Best music (had she won, she would have become the first country artist to win an Oscar). Felicity Huffman was also nominated for her performance in the Best Actress category. Just one simple question we ask ourselves after the show is over - why are they calling it a comedy?
Technorati Tags: Felicity Huffman, Transamerica, Annual Academy Awards
December 31st, 2006
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There were a few reasons for watching this movie. Actors that I have revered all my life including Konkona Sen, Irrfan Khan, KayKay and Shiney Ahuja have played a part in this flick. Anurag Basu has helmed the role of a director, whose Gangster (2006) was critically acclaimed and loved by the masses. The music by Pritam and the songs (lyricists Sayeed Quadri, Amitabh Varma, and Sandeep Shrivastava) are so contemporary and funky, I listened to it almost everyday in Europe, visualizing the tale against the urban backdrop of Mumbai. The question I begged to ask now was - when is Life in a…Metro releasing?
